Recently, my ferrier stated that he didn’t like using nippers saying that it changes the angle of the hoof. He said he prefers just using the rasp and hoof knife. Has anyone ever heard of this? I haven’t, but feel I should get confirmation. It seems that not enough hoof is coming off.
That is how I (as a non-farrier) touch up my barefoot horses because I’m too chicken to use nippers. But I do it every couple of weeks. It would take a lot of rasping to take enough off every 6 weeks especially if the horse is shod.
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That’s what I said to him! I can’t have him out every 2 weeks, especially 225 a pop.
WOW, just for a trim?
In my non professional opinion it is the farrier, not the tools used that sets up the angles, I expect mine to use the full range available, to complete the job quickly and competently.
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If your trimmer doesn’t trust himself to use nippers when needed, he may have a very good reason.
And you may need another farrier.
Actually it depends on how much hoof is there to trim. I ride barefoot on sand and gravel, and often my very competent farrier takes off very little, just rebalanced the foot, and doesn’t use nippers at all.
We often go way over time between trims, like ten weeks, and there is only a bit of rebalancing needed.
But if the hoof wall was noticeably grown out you’d need nippers to cut off the obvious excess.
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I was just wondering, along the same line as the others, how frequently your farrier prefers to trim/shoe? If he’s there every four weeks and your horse doesn’t grow a ton of foot, maybe that makes sense. My farrier frequently only uses the rasp on my TB. In fact, I can’t remember him ever using his nippers on him. But my WBs and ponies grow a ton of foot and he’d be there forever (and be going through a ridiculous number of rasps) if he didn’t use the nippers on them. So I can see the use of a rasp vs nippers being very horse dependent. But boy would it make me leery if he very seriously felt that he couldn’t use nippers as effectively as a rasp. I totally agree with KBC.
On that note, I started trimming my ponies myself fairly recently, and I also can’t imagine not using the nippers. I’m not very skilled (ha ha, that’s the understatement of the century!) with any of my tools, but even I can use my nippers in a way that doesn’t weirdly change the angle of the trim.
And one other aside. My farrier was just telling me about growing up on his parents’ ranch under his dad’s tutelage (dad was also a farrier). He said that they had to trim the horses with ONLY nippers - no rasps allowed - because his dad wanted them to learn to trim without the “cheater” tool that makes up for minor nipper errors. My take home from that story is that a farrier should be a master with the nippers even more than a rasp!
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Please tell me that price is not for a trim!! :lol: :lol:
pics?
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Yea… nippers trim at the angle that the farrier sets it to.
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easier to keep a very consistent angle if you are rasping a little every week or two than if you are taking 1/2" at 6 weeks with the nippers - but that is a function of the amount of growth not the tool used
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I Don’t even pay that for a full all four reset :eek:
It’s close to double what my farrier charges for 4 shoes with studs, so hopefully it’s not for a trim.
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It would be way cheaper to buy him an angle grinder !
(That price must be for a gold plated rasp)
If you have horses with really hard feet, nippers are not easy to use. You need REALLY strong hands with no arthritis. I also think they aid vertical cracks.
The 225 is the price for all 4 shoes. I cannot recollect a ferrier not using nippers, but I guess it’s not unheard of based on your replies. My concern here is that he is not taking enough off, and therefore forcing a 4 week turn around. In the winter, we can usually go 5 or 6 weeks. 225 is still a big price, but he does hot shoe. The foot, after being done, looked as if it could become long in a very short period of time.
You say he recently explained why he doesn’t use nippers - I assume that he’s not been using nippers for awhile and recently explained why? In other words, if he’s been doing your work and you are happy with the results, I wouldn’t worry about his method. Sounds like just a tool preference.
If he’s new, that’s different - it sounds like you think more foot should be taken off. Then I think its about whether you like the way this farrier shoes, not about the method he uses to achieve it. For what its worth, my horse is on roughly the same schedule - 4-5 weeks in summer, 6-7 weeks in winter. He was just done yesterday and only rasped. IDK, I could go longer, I guess, but the horse gets a long toe and this schedule works well for him. I like to keep a consistent foot, rather than have feet get too long and sloppy and then get trimmed way back and be too nubby.
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